Introduction
This is Freecell Solver version 3.6.x, a program that automatically solves most layouts of Freecell, and similar Solitaire variants as well as those of Simple Simon.
Freecell Solver is distributed under the MIT/X11 License ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License ), a free, permissive, public-domain like, open-source license.
Note that the Freecell Solver source and Win32 binary distributions do not provide a graphical user-interface (GUI) and are primarily meant to be used by Solitaire researchers and software developers. If you’re looking for a suitable GUI based on Freecell Solver, see our links at:
I hope you’ll enjoy using Freecell Solver, and make the best of it.
— Shlomi Fish ( http://www.shlomifish.org/ )
Building
Read the file INSTALL.txt for information on how to do that.
Usage
The program is called "fc-solve". You invoke it like this:
fc-solve board_file
board_file is the filename with a valid Freecell startup board. The file is built as follows:
It has the 8 Freecell stacks. Each stack contain its number of cards separated by a whitespace and terminated with a newline character( it’s important that the last stack will also be terminated with a newline !). The cards in the line are ordered from the bottom-most card in the left to the topmost card in the right.
A card string contains the card number (or rank) followed by the card deck. The card number is one of: A,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K. Alterantively T can be used instead of 10. The card deck is one of: H,S,D,C (standing for Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs respectively).
Here is an example board: (PySol/Microsoft board No. 24)
4C 2C 9C 8C QS 4S 2H 5H QH 3C AC 3H 4H QD QC 9S 6H 9H 3S KS 3D 5D 2S JC 5C JH 6D AS 2D KD 10H 10C 10D 8D 7H JS KH 10S KC 7C AH 5S 6S AD 8H JD 7S 6C 7D 4D 8S 9D
And another one: (PySol board No. 198246790)
KD JH 5H 7D 9H KC 9D 3H JD 5D 8H QH 7H 2D 4D 3S QC 3C 6S QS KS 10C 9S 6D 9C QD 8S 10D 10S 8C 7S 10H 2C AS 8D AC AH 4H JC 4C 6H 7C 4S 5S 5C JS AD KH 6C 2H 3D 2S
You can specify the contents of the freecells by prefixing the line with "FC:". For example:
FC: 3H QC
will specify that the cards 3 of hearts and queen of clubs are present in the freecells. To specify an empty freecell use a "-" as its designator.
If there’s another "FC:" line, the previous line will be overriden.
You can specify the contents of the foundations by prefixing the line with "Founds:" and then using a format as follows:
Founds: H-5 C-A S-0 D-K
Hence, the deck ID followed by a dash followed by the card number in the foundation. A suit that is not present will be assumed to be 0. Again, if there’s more than one then the previous lines will be overriden.
The program will stop processing the input as soon as it read 8 lines of standard stacks. Therefore, it is recommended that the foundations and freecells lines will come at the beginning of the file.
The program will process the board and try to solve it. If it succeeds it will output the states from the initial board to its final solution to the standard output. If it fails, it will notify it.
For information about the various command-line switches that Freecell Solver accepts, read the USAGE.txt file in this directory.
To solve Simple Simon boards append --game simple_simon right after the "fc-solve" program name.
The board generation programs
Several programs which can generate the initial boards of various Freecell implementations can be found in the "board_gen/" sub-directory. Read the README.txt file there for details on how they can be compiled and used.
In any case, they can save you the time of inputting the board yourself.